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The messaging app Snapchat has introduced end-to-end encryption, protecting the disappearing photos shared between its users from being intercepted.

The app, which has 186 million users and an estimated 16 million in the UK, is encrypting billions of messages a day.

End-to-end encryption scrambles a message as it travels over an internet network so that it can only be read by the recipient. Messages that are not encrypted can potentially be picked up by security services or hackers monitoring a connection.

Other messaging apps including WhatsApp and iMessage use encryption, claiming the technology keeps users secure. However, it has been questioned by politicians and security chiefs, who have...